Voice Leading: Control Through Counterpoint (Part 3, Second Species: Two Against One)
In part one we looked briefly at the first species of counterpoint where the provided and written voice move together one note at a time. Today we'll look at the second species which is a two against one type of writing where the provided voice will still only move on bar at a time, but the part we're writing will now include two notes. This allows us to start introducing dissonant intervals into our writing, and to establish some principles that will later be useful when we get to four part harmony
Voice Leading: Control Through Counterpoint (Part 1: Consonance vs. Dissonance)
So far we have only been working with concepts as they apply to individual voices. This doesn't make for very interesting musical ideas, but it removes a lot of the complications that come with having multiple voices. Starting now we will begin looking at how two voices can interact, and our first topic will be how to deal with consonance vs dissonance. We'll continue to avoid topics such as harmony and scales and we will still be using our established modes.
Intervals: Diatonic Expression
Most music theory training centers around intervals to some degree. We use it to describe the pattern of sequences (scales, motifs, melodies), the distance between stacked notes between voices or in a chord, to describe the consonance/dissonance of a given set, and the relationships between different sections in different keys. The reason for this importance being that when we experience music it's not just notes in isolation, but within the context of other notes. The way we discuss this experience is via intervals. Even if not being done explicitly, a listener may describe a feeling from a particular part of a song that was the result of how notes interacted (the interval content).
Frequency, Pitch, and Notes: The Building Blocks of Building Blocks
Similar to the relationship between video games and programming the experience of listening to, and even to some degree writing music is built on layers of abstraction from 'lower level' type concepts. Part of being a competent composer and musician is to understand the lower level concepts, and be able to work at various levels of abstraction. At the highest level of just listening you're not immediately concerned with things like form. Moving one layer down you may be focused on overall form, but not be focused on specific chord progressions. From there layers move down from chord progressions->chord voicings(inversion)->voice leading->counter point(voice independence)->intervals->motifs/melodies->notes->pitch->frequency->silence.
Modern Philosophy of Classical Traditions: Theory, History, and Musicianship
The goal here is to boil down hundreds of years of theory and tradition, and try to restructure it for the post-modern mindset. A significant amount of music history is made up of numerous pendulums where attitudes and practices move in and out of common use. It's sufficient in this context to simply acknowledge that the practice existed, give a description, and then move on to the next thing without trying to be persuasive about why the practice is good or not.
Why Start a Blog
Most of the topics I'd like to cover are audio related with most of those topics being related to music theory (concepts and practice), production (design, mixing and mastering), and sometimes venturing into video game programming (game engines, audio engines, and coding). The goal is to have a progression to each topic starting with an overall philosophy, and then moving on to basic concepts that will be the basis for future posts